The ADL report on global anti-Semitism is getting a lot of negative reviews. A central question is, Why didn’t the Anti-Defamation League survey Israelis on their anti-Semitic beliefs when it was traveling the world to survey people in 102 countries, representing 4 billion people in the world? As David Samel asked here yesterday.
Here are two other criticisms from the web.
Jim Lobe at Lobelog has explored the data on which the survey is based, and comes up with some insights about people’s attitudes about Israel. He begins by listing questions asked of respondents:
1) Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Israel?…
3) Do actions taken by the State of Israel influence your opinions about Jews, or do they not influence your opinions about Jews? …
4) Would you say that the actions Israel takes generally give you a better opinion of Jews or a worse opinion of Jews? This question was asked only of those who in question 3 above said the actions of Israel influence their opinions of Jews…On question 3 — whether actions by the State of Israel influenced respondents’ opinions about Jews — 16% said “major influence,” 19% “minor,” 42% said none; and 23% volunteered that they “didn’t know.”
And on question 4, for the 35% who said Israel’s actions did influence their opinions about Jews, 25% said they had a better opinion, but 57% said their opinion of Jews was worsened by Israel’s action, while another 17% volunteered that they didn’t know how they were influenced.
Now, those are not insignificant numbers. According to the ADL, the 53,000-plus respondents represent nearly 4.2 billion people, which means the 35% who said that Israel’s actions influenced their opinions of Jews represent nearly 1.5 billion people. Fifty-seven percent of those 1.5 billion adults translates to 855 million people who, if we extrapolate from the survey’s methodology, are willing to tell pollsters outright that Israel’s actions make them see Jews in a more negative light; which is to say, make them anti-Jewish or more anti-Jewish than they already were…
it seems safe to say that Israel’s actions — at least as reported by those same mass media — do not help the cause of eliminating anti-Semitism around the world, and especially in its own neighborhood where, in fact, Israeli actions have been felt most directly.
In the same reasonable spirit of suggesting that some attitudes may be based on some Jews’ behavior, Noah Feldman at Bloomberg notes the extent to which the negative stereotypes of Jews that the ADL asked about touch on widely-held attitudes about Jews.
As the pollster makes a continuing series of anti-Semitic statements, the addressee may well have the experience of feeling increasingly reminded of whatever latent anti-Semitic beliefs he may have…
Those negative stereotypes include such statements as “Jews have too much power in the business world,” “Jews have too much power in international financial markets,” “Jews have too much control over global affairs,” “Jews think they are better than other people,” “Jews have too much control over the United States government,” and “Jews have too much control over the global media.”
At the Forward Jay Michaelson also says that he failed the test.
Why is anyone taking the Anti-Defamation League’s survey on global anti-Semitism seriously?
He states flatly that Jews have too much control over the U.S. government and that we have disproportionate influence over business and media matters, but doesn’t see that as negative.
How about too much “control over the United States government”? Here, the answer must be yes, proportionally speaking. How many U.N. resolutions does the U.S. think it can veto before, at some point, this canard becomes impossible to resist
While Feldman says that the alleged anti-Semitic belief that Jews feel more loyalty to Israel than to the country they live in might be actual fact.
If I believed that some or even most Jews would take the side of Israel in the case of a serious conflict with their own countries, would that belief help qualify me as an anti-Semite? Don’t get me wrong, it would be bad for Jews in many countries if such polls were performed. But thinking you know what they might say isn’t bias.
So Feldman and Michaelson are saying that Jews can hold alleged anti-Semitic stereotypes, which surely runs against the ADL’s perception of the problem. Feldman raises the point that Samel and Marsha Cohen have: Why didn’t the ADL survey Israelis? Wouldn’t many Jews share these beliefs?
Then there is a final, telling omission: Why didn’t the ADL poll in Israel? They did poll in the West Bank and Gaza, where they got the highest anti-Jewish result they found anywhere. Is it because no one really wants to hear how the world’s only majority Jewish population would have done on the quiz?
This isn’t a criticism, but Fareed Zakaria picked the poll up:
That was interesting what Fareed Zakaria did with that absurd ADL anti-Semitism survey.
— Scott Roth (@scottroth76) May 18, 2014
And what did he do with it?
He mentioned the report and then asked viewers what country in the Mideast was the least anti semitic.
1. Palestinian terr
2. Jordan
3. Egypt
4. Iran
Answer is Iran.
Marsha Cohen also noted that Iran is the least anti-Semitic country in the Middle East, according to the survey.
Everybody I know, both Jews and non-Jews, would be interested to know that the ADL is itself, anti-Semitic, as our they.
Hello, Phil. Thanks for your writing on this worthwhile topic.
I don’t see how survey participants can say that Jews have bad politics or have good politics, have political power or don’t have political power without falling into an unfair generalization about people.
The only things that you can generalize about people would have to be almost inherent, like saying that it’s “probably true” that Christians, Muslims, Jews, Atheists etc. each to at least some degree feel that they are better than other groups because they perceive that their moral and philosophical system is better. (The “Bad” answer for Q. Four)
Or that as a general rule, it’s “probably true” that people hate other groups, rightly or wrongly, because they hate their targets’ behavior, customs, actions, ways, etc. (“Bad” answer for Q. Nine)
Hmm, thanks a lot to Jim Lobe. Seems to be the first survey/poll firm, at least it feels, that somehow convinced the ADL to add a layer of depth to its stereotype questions. The deeper layers are indeed interesting.
And not just anti-semitic stereotypes. Do a serious poll on anti-Arab or anti-Muslim or anti-Palestinian attitudes among Israelis and Zionists, both Christian and Jewish.
I’m a little tired of the idea that only one type of bigotry matters on this subject. Anyone who follows the subject knows the pro-Israeli side is no stranger to bigotry.
Or let Ali Abunimah’s group do that poll. I’m sure the NYT would do a story on the results. (Sarcasm, of course.)